At the same time, efforts such as this can make people lose sight of the fact that big cities themselves are unsustainable and doomed to collapse. Rooftop gardens and more trees won't change that. -- RF

By 2027 the world could be facing a 214 trillion calorie deficit, says Sara Menker, founder and chief executive of Gro Intelligence, an agricultural data technology company. In other words, in just a decade, we won't have enough food to feed the planet.

## Systemic breakdown/collapse/unsustainability ##Systemic Uncertainty, Meet FragilityThat's the problem with fragility: everything looks fine on the surface until a crisis applies pressure. Then the whole rickety contraption collapses in a heap.

Japan, US look to cut off North Korea's oil supplyThe U.S. and Japan will call for an international embargo on oil exports to North Korea in response to Tuesday's launch of a ballistic missile over Japan, as the allies seek to strike at the lifeblood of Pyongyang's weapons programs.

And the misery is likely to get even worse due to financial sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in efforts to isolate Maduro for taking the country down an increasingly authoritarian path.

Although I don't think Maduro is tackling his country's problems in the right way, that is a matter for the Venezuelan people to sort out, not the US government. Yet here we have another open admission that the US is meddling in Venezuela's affairs. In July the US government tried to meddle in Venezuela's Assembly election. -- RF

Afghanistan: America's Trillion Dollar War16 years since the Bush administration launched its military intervention in Afghanistan, President Trump has announced his intention to increase the U.S. military presence in the country. As Statista's Niall McCarthy notes, there are approximately 8,400 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan and reinforcements could start arriving within days. Trump's new strategy is set to extend the longest war in U.S. history and add even further to its already staggering cost.

Going after methane hydrate is a total waste of time and money. This is even worse than shale drilling. They will scoop up a little methane hydrate, and this will be hailed as another technological miracle which opens the way to a Glorious Technological Future, but the attempt to exploit this crap is actually an act of desperation. -- RF

Journalist Interrogated, Fired For Story Linking CIA And Syria Weapons FlightsA months-long investigation which tracked and exposed a massive covert weapons shipment network to terror groups in Syria via diplomatic flights originating in the Caucuses and Eastern Europe under the watch of the CIA and other intelligence agencies has resulted in the interrogation and firing of the Bulgarian journalist who first broke the story. This comes as the original report is finally breaking into mainstream international coverage.

More Misleading Russia-gate PropagandaThe U.S. mainstream media is touting a big break in Russia-gate, emails showing an effort by Donald Trump's associates to construct a building in Moscow. But the evidence actually undercuts the "scandal."

The average reader would never know that U.S. and NATO forces themselves engaged this summer in "their largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War," to quote NPR. Nor would they know that NATO collectively spends 12 times more than Russia on its military, or that its European members alone field nearly 75 percent more military personnel than Russia.China universities tighten ideological control of teaching staff

The Alt-Right's Alternative RealityPresident Trump's "Alt-Right" is a grab bag of mostly incoherent or contradictory ideas derived from white resentments. Now, it will be played off against the Republican establishment with unpredictable results.

There are always two viewpoints. To the Iranians, the constant presence of US warships off its coast is an alarming threat, especially in view of the belligerent and unfriendly posture that the US exhibits toward Iran. The Iranian view is no doubt that the US might launch an attack at any time, which is why US ships need to be monitored closely and constantly. -- RF

America's 'Global Policeman' RoleAmerica's influential neocons and their liberal-hawk sidekicks want U.S. interventions pretty much everywhere, but other powers are chafing against this U.S. "global policeman."

The Possible Education of Donald TrumpIsraeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is ratcheting up war tensions in Syria again, but President Trump reportedly is not happy with the threats as he shifts again toward resisting the neocons.

As if energy-savvy people needed more convincing, the above two articles mercilessly demolish the shale oil myth. All the enthusiastic ballyhoo from the US government and mainstream media is nothing but cheap propaganda. Shale oil is a total fiasco. -- RF

Production has fallen steadily after peaking at as much as 3.4 million barrels per day between 2003 and 2005. The drop is largely due to the company's inability to find new reserves to replace aging, shallow-water fields.

Ford To Abandon "Traditional Credit Scores" For Underwriting Decisions As Sales StallSo, what do you do when your sales are stalling because you've already financed new cars for every man, woman and child with a credit score north of 500? Well, you simply abandon credit scores in the underwriting process and instead explicitly mandate that your loan officers approve every potential car buyer that walks through the door with a pulse.